food, fame, money, being better than most people. People in the mid-west, south, rockies, etc. are obsessed with hating the coastal regions and the costal regions hate the rest of the country (i.e. Democrats v. GOP.)

food, TV series and the Internet.

fun things in life

money and power.

money and power.

Money, and all the other problems that everyone else is obsessed with now.

There are a lot more things with which the Americans are obsessed, but there are a lot of them that definitely have obsession with these 2 words. For the food they don't view it the same way as you, French people, view it. You consider it more like an enjoyment, I think. You value it more. The Americans consider it mostly as a fuel for their bodies; that's why on average they don't spend that much time eating (despite the fact that they eat big portions). They usually grab something on their way... most of the times junk food!

As long as money are concerned, it's part of the American dream. You work more to get more money to be able to do more activities or buy more stuff for your pleasure.

But I would say they are obsessed, at a significant level, with reality shows and TV (especially cable) as well.

When i was looking at these lists, I noticed that many of the responses seemed, to me, to be important to individual groups in the United States. By this I mean that some things might be more important to different age groups, different economic classes, different regions, different races, etc. Perhaps this is because most of the responses are based on cliches. Is this how the French actually see all Americans?

Like Michalis, I noticed that the MIT students responded with a lot of popular culture references (i.e. Television, film, pop culture, celebrities, Hollywood, etc.). I didn't see any responses from the students at Brest that referred to popular culture or TV/cinema. Do French students associate Americans with these things at all? It seems like Americans export their popular culture all over the world through music and television, so this seems to be something Americans truly are obsessed with.

Students from MIT and Brest said that Americans and the French are obsessed with food, but the types of food varied for Americans and the French. For example, both MIT and Brest students indicated that Americans are obsessed with fast food or unhealthy food, whereas the French are obsessed with cuisine or the art of fine food (including wine and cheese). Is fast food as popular in France as it is in America? I remeber seeing a lot of McDonald's and Quick Burger restaurants in Paris.

Finally, a lot of the Brest responses said that Americans were obsessed with superiority (especially over other countries). Though I think this is true, no American students responded this way. Do you think it is because we refuse to see our own faults? Or is this because Americans already believe that they are superior, and thus aren't obsessed with the concept?

Are the internal divisions and disagreements within the US apparent to the French? Several of the MIT responses referred to the "Red State" and "Blue State" divide and other political differences within the states.

The divisions between different area of the US are not just political and ideological; the laws also vary widely. In Massachusetts, for example, gay marriage is legal and marijuana use is decriminalized, even though both are still illegal across most of the country. The vast majority of our laws are not written by the federal government.

I think it's fair to say that we are obsessed with these disagreements and differences, but because they are so prevalent here, we don't notice our obsession. We also probably appear far more unified to the outside world than we actually are.

This topic shares some similarities with "What the US/France needs most..." It is interesting to note that only the countries speaking of themselves tend to focus on the politics because that is what the people of each country are most familiar with. However, since many students from Brest have pointed out Obama in previous forums, I thought they might expect that Americans are "obsessed" with politics these days. Do the students from Brest expect Americans to be "obsessed" with politics?

When you talk about the Americans being obsessed with power and being superior, do you talk about the United States as a nation and power in a political or economic sense, or do you talk about Americans at a personal level feeling like they are superior to people from other countries?

Anthony, I would like to respond to your questions. I think that the reason why we didn't write down "big cars" or "large buildings" as something we are obsessed with is because it is part of our lifestyle and there isn't as much of a stigma associated with these things. We don't think much about our cars and skyscrapers anymore because more people talk about our fast food and television. It is similar to the Americans thinking that the French are obsessed with small cars. Would you say that the French are obsessed with small cars?

To respond to Anthony, I think that we don't really mention sports because sports are popular in other countries, too, and they don't really seem to be a passion that delineates us as Americans. For us, (American) football and baseball are just kind of everyday things and I don't think we necessariliy consider that other countries may not have these sports as a significant part of their culture. As Gabriel mentioned about cars and buildings, we probably don't mention sports for the same reason that you don't really mention soccer, etc.

Helene: in response to your question, I wouldn't really say that it's generally advantageous or disadvantageous to have the divides between areas of the country, but we definitely do. Each area of the United States (South, West, Midwest, East Coast, etc) has its own pretty distinctive culture, and although it's never a good idea to make absolute generalizations, for the most part, you can tell the difference in cultures and obsessions in different areas of the country. This is probably because the United States is so large, has a lot of different history in terms of who settled where and when, as well as the foundation of our country. I'm from the Midwest originally, so it's kind of funny for me to be out east now and hear people's stereotype of the midwest. True, we do have a lot more farmland, etc., but everyone assumes that all we have are cows, milk, cheese, and horrid accents, which is definitely not the case! I would say that people associate a preoccupation with appearance with the west coast the most because that's where Hollywood is and all of that sort of culture. Out east, people like baseball a lot more and since there are more larger cities, I would say that it's generally more cultured in the sense of museums, music, etc., and more educated since there are more high powered universities and large corporation offices.

I think you are right that there is some small fear in the United States that China or India or some other country is on the rise and will soon be on par with the United States. It's important to remember that all of the people in power today grew up during the Cold War, when the United States felt very threatened by the USSR (and vice versa), and I think they are afraid to give up the sole superpower status we've enjoyed for the past two decades because they are afraid that we might return to a situation where we are no longer the most powerful.

I'm not saying the US is on the way down, but no nation remains on top forever, and I think Americans in general are very reluctant to acknowledge that fact.

I have to agree as well that this is a strange time for the U.S. With China holding most of our debt and the most powerful economy in the world, we are trying to find ways to maintain our influence and our status. I think the posting of words such as "power" reflects a history more than the current situation. The U.S. has been the military, political and economic power in the world for a long period of time, and that reality manifests itself in our country in many different ways - perhaps all the way down to the individual.

The fear you mention is a good point though and, as Jared said, is a difficult fact for us to collectively acknowledge.

As for France's place in the world, as you ask, I think we Americans view it as a beacon of culture, refinement, and for me: a country that has firmly maintained its identity throughout a very tumultuous history. I think that is one of the reasons that it dismays me so much to see American pop-culture becoming so prevalent in France. France is such a beautiful and rich country that I don't like seeing that richness diluted by American exports.

You're right that accents vary widely between states (and sometimes within states as well), and many states also have second languages that are commonly used in the home. French, for instance, is still spoken in parts of Louisiana and New England:

Spanish is also becoming a very common language in the Southwest and in the larger cities, more so every day. According to the 2000 census, around 12% of Americans speak Spanish in the home. There is a really interesting website about languages in the U.S. here: http://www.mla.org/map_data

As for accents, check out this website: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/linguistics6e/pages/bcs-main.asp?v=chapt... Due to TV and popular music, I think regional accents are usually much less pronounced in our generation, but older people, especially those over 50 or so tend to have much stronger accents. Some people from the Midwest and the South try to cover up their accents because they are sometimes associated with being uneducated, but other people from those areas are proud of their accents as a mark of where they grew up.